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Corruption and autocracy

By Guy Hallowes - posted Monday, 2 May 2022


Central and South America

Virtually every country has a fundamentally corrupt government, some worse than others (such as Brazil and Venezuela).

North America

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The USA and Canada are relatively non-corrupt.

Europe

Most of Europe is relatively non-corrupt, lead by the Scandinavian countries.

Hungary is one obvious exception, being run by a corrupt Olycrook sympathetic to Russia.

Many of the countries mentioned above do have elections, but they are severely compromised by candidates having to be 'approved' by the existing government (e.g. Russia and Hong Kong), or they are heavily gerrymandered (e.g. Hungary), or corruption is so embedded in society that it is almost impossible to eliminate (i.e.. most of Africa). China does not even bother with what they regard as the farce of holding elections.

So what are the reasons for all this corruption:

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  • Power and Greed. Obvious motivations for autocrats worldwide.
  • Habit. Many countries have no history of any kind of democratic process, they have always been governed in an autocratic style. Russia and China are prime examples.
  • Overpopulation. This applies to much of Africa and the Middle East. Overpopulation can lead to desperation.
  • Hopelessness. These countries often have so-called elites who believe that whatever they do, there is not enough wealth to go around, so they steal what they can to protect themselves and their families andsend money to be invested in Western democracies.
  • Entitlement. These elites also feel that they deserve a Western-style standard of living and will do anything to attain it.

It's notable that, in the past, much of Europe behaved in a similar way, with aristocratic elites just taking what they needed to maintain what they considered to be a reasonable standard of living, and the rest of the population having to make do with what was left. The Industrial Revolution gradually provided enough for the whole population and democracy resulted. However, that is clearly not the situation elsewhere.

Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) ranks 180 countries from around the world based on their perceived level of corruption, with the higher number representing the worse the corruption. Here are some examples from the index:

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About the Author

Sydney-based Guy Hallowes is the author of Icefall, a thriller dealing with the consequences of climate change. He has also written several novels on the change from Colonial to Majority rule in Africa. To buy browse and buy his books click here.

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